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Drake (Earth-616)
| Identity = No Dual | Affiliation = , | Relatives = Unnamed father; James Drake (brother; deceased) | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Los Angeles, California; formerly Japan | Gender = Female | Height = | Weight = | Eyes = Brown | Hair = Black | UnusualFeatures = | Citizenship = American | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Dojo owner | Education = | Origin = Human | PlaceOfBirth = Los Angeles, California | Creators = Greg Rucka; Joe Bennett | First = Elektra Vol 2 #16 | Death = Elektra Vol 2 #21 | HistoryText = Drake’s father served with the U.S military during World War II. He was part of the forces occupying Japan and being an African-American he was left with mostly menial tasks. While in Japan he discovered an interest in certain aspects of Japanese art, culture and, in particular, the martial arts. Drake's father came home to California in the summer of 1947 and taught his son James Drake everything he had learnt, the boy demonstrated a phenomenal talent for martial arts and he, in turn, started teaching his younger sister what he had learned from their father. James quickly learned that his sister was a natural whose talents surpassed his own. In 1953 Drake’s father returned to Japan with his family so as to learn more. Unbeknownst to the Drake family some of the men he had met and learned from in Japan were members of a secret mystical order of martial arts masters, The Chaste who recruited Drake's father as well as her brother. Drake herself was kept around as a servant, ignored by the members of the Chaste who would teach her brother, despite him being foreign and black, as he was considered a prodigy but who wouldn't even look at a young girl let alone deem her worthy of training. Despite her rejection by the Chaste her brother James would take her aside at night and teach her everything he had learnt as well as sharing texts he was studying, Drake quickly proved capable of surpassing and beating him. A single member of the Chaste had payed attention to Drake, noticing her potential and skill, his name was Stick and he valued Drake's ability more than he did the traditions of the Chaste. Despite this he told the siblings that they had broken the rules but offered them a second chance, he had a group of Chaste attack them both and told them whichever sibling fell first would have to leave. Drake and her brother fought the Chaste and ultimately it was Drake who beat her brother. James was forced to leave the Chaste while his sister continued her studies among them but Drake was full of anger after having been mistreated at the hands of the Chaste and having suffered through racism her whole life and accidentally killed a fellow member of the Chaste, resulting in her expulsion from the order. Drake then went down a path that very closely mirrored that of her future student Elektra, in that she was discovered by The Hand and recruited into their organisation while hiding from them the fact that she intended to prove herself to Stick by taking down the Hand from within thus conquering her own darkness. The Hand had her fight and kill a man in a pitch dark cave as part of an initiation ritual, once she was victorious they revealed to her that the man she had killed was her own brother James. As the Hand had planned this broke Drake's spirit and she became a loyal and subservient member of their order, killing for them for years. This all changed In 1972 when the Hand fought four members of the Chaste in Luxembourg, Drake killed all four of the Chaste, including her own father. After this tragic event Drake was able to break through her Hand conditioning and escape them. She returned home to Los Angeles aware that there was no way for her to truly atone for everything she had done so instead she concentrated on changing, becoming a good person and a decent human being. Drake set up a dojo in an abandoned auto repair shop and became a martial arts instructor and dedicated herself to her local community, working to feed the homeless, teach local children and to clean up playgrounds to keep them safe for kids. Drake continued with this vocation and eventually a friend of hers, Philip Carson who was working for Jeremy Locke brought Elektra to her to see if she would help Elektra to give up on her addiction to killing and grow to be a better person as Drake herself had. Drake was sceptical of Elektra’s worth and tested her fighting ability to get a sense of her while she listed out dozens of people whom Elektra had killed, the fight was decidedly one sided with Drake easily defeating Elektra. Drake claimed she believed Elektra was but a heartless murderer and rejected her, Elektra wouldn't take this rejection and remained meditating and attempting to serve Drake outside of her dojo to show her worth and impress Drake. Drake paid her no mind until she saw Elektra get angry at a group of children for disrupting her and instead of lashing out at them she decided to play soccer with them at which point she accepted her as a student. Drake worked with Elektra for several weeks, helping her to break her Chaste training as well as her Hand conditioning to the point that Elektra viewed her time as a remorseless killer as being in the past. While teaching Elektra, Drake focused on reawakening Elektra's connection to her own humanity as well as to the life around her, getting her to view everyone as someone's child so that she would hesitate on killing them without thinking. This training was working and Drake even believed Elektra to be ready to start down on her own path but it was at this point that The Hand found Elektra and attacked the Dojo. The Hand masters Shadow, Thought and Pain, collectively known as The Three, recognised Drake and called her 'The Betrayer'. The Hand destroyed her dojo in the fight against her and Elektra, this fight was designed by the Hand to get Elektra back in touch with her killer instincts and to entice her to give up on the teachings Drake had passed onto her. They lured Elektra into fighting them so she would lose focus, which Drake warned against, allowing Thought to use his powers to mess with Elektra's mind before revealing they had Jeremy Locke and if Elektra wanted him to be freed she would have to come to them in the Mojave Desert at the sight of her last massacre. After escaping the burning dojo Elektra learned that Drake had been hit with a poison dart while she was focused on Elektra. Drake knew she was dying and revealed she'd been ready for it for some time, she told Elektra not to fight The Three alone and to remember that 'a warrior doesn't fight for fighting, she fights for a cause' before dying in Elektra's arms | Powers = | Abilities = Drake was a well trained martial artist with skill as an assassin, she had mastery of several different kinds of ancient weaponry and with her physical training from the Chaste and Hand was shown capable of easily besting Elektra in battle despite being at least 60 years old at the time. | Strength = | Weaknesses = | Equipment = Drake had an impressive weapons rack at her dojo, including many valuable and high quality weapons but she did not usually carry weapons herself. She has been shown however to heavily arm herself with a vast arsenal of ancient weapons gathered from her rack if she is expecting armed conflict. | Transportation = | Weapons = | Notes = | Trivia = | Marvel = | Wikipedia = | Links = }} Category:Martial Arts